From the Principal

As the end-of-year showcases and celebrations continue, our girls continue to amaze us with the scope of their learning and how deeply they lean into their unique gifts, talents and passions. This week we have the pleasure of acknowledging our learners in co-curricular Theatresports and Film, Rhythmic and Artistic Gymnastics, Language Arts and Drama – and we were even treated to a fabulous Nativity play by our Year 12 (2025) Boarders on Tuesday night at their final Christmas Celebration in the Chapel. It’s gratifying to see our students ‘own’ their work with so much pride and joy.

While we are on the topic of exceptional creativity, we were thrilled to see an incredible 24 of our Year 12 (2024) Visual Arts students nominated for HSC ARTEXPRESS, which showcases the best practical work in this course in the state. Just this week, we were advised that four of these students have had their work selected for the exhibition, which is the maximum number from any one school in NSW. Congratulations to our gifted students and brilliant staff on this wonderful recognition of your talents.

We also shared a special end-of year-honouring of our Year 6 cohort at their final Chapel Service and Celebration of Learning before they step up to the Middle School next year. Congratulations on this milestone, girls, and always remember that your kindness and our College values are your trusty guides as you navigate your new learning environment in the Secondary School together.

Together is a key word at Pymble. Our motto of “Nothing to you, without you” means we will always consult and collaborate with our community on important matters. The launch of our Wise Phone Initiative is an example of this approach, which was based on student and parent feedback confirming a universal desire to work together to reclaim the childhood our young people deserve, off their devices.

Thank you for your feedback on our uniform review

Last Friday, all parents and carers, students in Years 4 to 12, Alumni and current staff received an email from our Deputy Principal, Ms Rockwell, requesting feedback on a collection of items for a proposed new uniform for all year groups at the College. The ideas presented were based on requests from our students for changes, and the designs informed by student, parent and Alumni focus groups.

Continuing our commitment to consultation on this important decision, Ms Rockwell and I also brought samples along to this week’s assembly, which raised some interesting comments and questions from students in Years 7 to 11. While the black watch blazer inspired a mixed reaction from the 2268 survey respondents, we certainly heard from the girls in assembly that, contrary to focus group feedback, the proposed new design is a ‘miss’. Students expressed a strong desire to remain with a navy blazer and black watch tartan skirt. Thanks for the feedback girls – we heard you and will revert.

The uniform review was undertaken with four key goals in mind:

1. To address issues with the current uniform, as expressed by our students, such as the itchy fabric of the skirt and the sheerness of the shirt.
2. To address the frequent requests from multiple groups of students over the years who have campaigned for pants to be introduced into the uniform range. Since the survey was sent on Friday, more than 30 per cent of our students have indicated they would like pants as an option. (As I write this today, I’m wearing a pant suit!)
3. To reduce the number of uniform items required for students by providing options that can be worn in both summer and winter instead of having separate seasonal uniforms. This will also reduce the cost to parents and carers.
4. To simplify the uniform for our Junior School students and introduce items such as skorts, at their request, so our girls feel more comfortable being active at school.

As mentioned above, based on all the feedback we have received so far, it’s clear we are not there yet.

As a result, we have made the decision to pause for now, and work toward introducing items that bring minimal change and maximum benefit, such as skorts in the Junior School and a pants option in the Secondary School (that doesn’t end up looking like ‘navy on navy’ when paired with a navy jumper or blazer). Of course, any new items introduced will be phased in.

Our survey remains open until 10.00am tomorrow, Friday 29 November, and we warmly invite you to add your voice to this ongoing discussion if you haven’t already done so.

Click here to submit your feedback.

To all those who have taken the time to share your thoughts on this first round of ideas, thank you. Your feedback shifts us into the next phase of the review, which will be more aligned with our current uniform.

Our girls have told us, repeatedly, that they would like to see changes to their uniform, for comfort and for flexibility. We love that our girls and community are so proud of their school, and their uniform. We remain committed to listening to the needs of our students and to getting this right for them.

Windows into learning

As we begin to wrap up this series for the year, we hope you have enjoyed these slices of life in classrooms at Pymble in 2024. This week we go behind the scenes of our upcoming Kindy nativity play – oh my goodness, I can’t wait for that one! – and the role PDHPE plays in developing leadership skills.

Kindy gets into the Christmas spirit

In Performing Arts this term, Kindergarten students have been diligently preparing for their special Nativity performance next Tuesday. The girls have worked so hard since early in Term 3 to learn all the songs, dance moves and actions, and they have been steadily growing in their confidence and love of performing. Starting from Week 5, students have had the opportunity to rehearse on stage in our beautiful Chapel. The first rehearsal in particular was a magical moment of learning. It was wonderful to see elements of the production starting to come together and to hear the students’ joyful voices united in singing and telling the story of the nativity.

Precious too were moments where students stepped out of their comfort zones and gained a boost in confidence from being able to practise performing in front of their teachers and peers. Students have also contributed their amazing artistic talents to the production by drawing and colouring backdrops which will be featured on screen. The 2024 Kindergarten Nativity will truly be a magical experience and a fabulous showcase of students’ learning in Performing Arts, and we can’t wait to share it with our Kindy parents and carers next week.

Ms Ellen Buckley
Junior School Performing Arts Teacher

Training, teamwork and leadership in PE

This term, Year 9 students have been taking the lead in PE, working collaboratively in teams to lead their peers through a nominated sport. 

Students began by reflecting on their strengths to help determine their various roles within their team. They then embraced these roles to lead their peers in training sessions and tournaments. Roles included leading warm-ups and cool-downs as the conditioning team, motivating and promoting wellbeing as team captains, setting and implementing rules of the game as team officials, designing and leading training session as team coaches, and organising the setup for all sessions as equipment officers.

It has been a wonderful opportunity for students to strengthen their leadership skills and build their capacity to engage in reflection and act on feedback to enhance their learning and the learning of others.

Mrs Alison Cruz
Head of Learning Area PDHPE